Molloy College sends two to China

Scholarship winners Gareth Moore, second from left, and Patrick Lisante were congratulated on their win by Associate Dean Ron Carman, left, and Dean Stephen Bier.

Alex Costello/Herald

By Alex Costello

For many years, Molloy College’s Division of Business hosted a trip to China for its first-year students. But for the first time, the business department held an essay contest about business ethics, the winners of which had their trip to China paid for by a scholarship.

Gareth Moore and Patrick Lisante, both first-year students in Molloy’s Business Honors program, won first and second place in the essay contest, respectively. The essays were on one of two topics: addressing the question of social responsibility or a definition of what is the “right” thing to do in business.

“The reason we do ethics is because our position as the only Catholic college within the county of Nassau is something we take very seriously,” said Stephen Bier, the dean of the division of business. “And we think ethics, just in general, is something that needs to be emphasized, with the scandals and fraud we’ve seen permeating the business headlines.”

The scholarship was funded by professors in the business department. Moore, the first-place winner, had the full $2,200 cost of the China trip subsidized. Lisante received $1,100 for the trip, making it much more affordable.

“I think it’s definitely a unique trip, because you usually hear about people going to Europe to study abroad,” said Lisante. “You don’t really meet a lot of students that get to travel to China.”

Moore’s paper was about the specifics of American financial history, particularly about families like the Rockefellers that amassed huge fortunes. He compared them to foreign business moguls who exploit cheap labor.

“I went on to say that in a society in America, much is given but much is expected,” Moore said. “And we know better and ethics should be held at a much higher standard for that reason.”

Lisante profiled the case of Ford v. Mann, where the Ramapough Indians sued the Ford Motor Company for dumping toxic waste on their reservation in the late 1960s.

“As time went on, almost every family in the reservation had some kind of cancer or related illnesses due to this toxic waste,” said Lisante.